Can Boro finally crack the 20,000 crowd barrier when the top two clash on Saturday?

If they don’t then Steve Gibson could be forgiven for banging his head on the boardroom table in frustration.

A rebuilt Boro that he has largely funded from his own pocket are joint top of the Championship, facing the team they share the summit with and with both sides in good form.

A win and they will go top. This is as good as it gets in the Championship in the first phase of the campaign.

It is a mouth-watering, high-stakes fixture between two sides who “play good football”.

And if Boro win then they will have demonstrated their promotion credentials in style and can seize the initiative in what is shaping up to be a very tense and closely fought division.

If that doesn’t get the juices flowing as a supporter then God knows what will.

Of course, the mathematics of ticket pricing and gates is highly complex and there are many sincere supporters who genuinely can’t afford to go and another swathe who are prevented by logistics, distance, shift patterns or rashly arranged family celebrations. No- one is pointing the finger at them.

But there are others out there, layers of lapsed loyalists and part-time pickers and choosers. They should choose this one.

It is a good time to climb back aboard the bandwagon.

There is a buzz about Boro. Many who walked away did so because after the champagne years of the Premier League, the humdrum of fruitless flailing about in the Championship was a frustrating and unfulfilling chore in atmospheres as flat as week old lager, people who opted saying they “don’t feel the club have ambition”.

You can’t blame them for that. If the product isn’t exciting or value for money then that’s fair enough.

But the buzz is back. There is an atmosphere. There is a sense of excitement. Of purpose. Of ambition. A sense that promotion is an achievable target.

Boro are delivering results. And there is an obvious growing bond within the team and, crucially, between the squad and the crowd. Something is starting to happen.

Fans are beginning to believe. After the Norwich game when most of the crowd had left, a hardy group were stood in the South Stand - the Red Faction kop area - singing seventies battle-cry “Up The Boro” with gusto and conviction. Although obviously they were well oiled.

That may be a bit premature - joint top in November doesn’t win any prizes - but it shows you how the mood music has changed around the Riverside.

Yes, “we’ve been here before”… but this squad is far stronger than the one that went top for less than 24 hours under Mogga two years ago with a 3-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday.

Then Boro had a strong first XI but beyond that looked a bit shaky and as the injuries and pressure mounted the team cracked and ran out of steam.

Now Boro have one of the best squads in the division and frightening firepower on the bench.

The manager has options. He’s not scared to shake it about.

And a few changes doesn’t make the team less coherent or potent.

Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson

And there is a real sense of unity and purpose and an almost tangible belief within the camp.

They have all bought into “the philosophy and methodology” and are all totally focussed on the unspoken target: Promotion. Look at the squad celebrate. Everyone is pulling together. It is fantastic to see.

Karanka stressed the collective in his post-match comments: “We don’t have anybody above the team, not the manager, not the striker, not the keeper, we are all the same importance, from the chairman to the kit man, we are a team.” And you can see that too.

Boro now need the stayaway fans to buy into that, to become an active part of the collective, to get behind the team and give an extra edge to the atmosphere in the ground and roar the team on - and to give the club extra muscle as the Financial Fair Play screw starts to tighten.

The chairman has gone out on a limb this season and gambled on spending more on wages than the FFP limits allow in a bid for promotion.

The best way to mitigate that is to push the crowd up by a few thousand on a regular basis.

Of course, supporters have seen plenty of false dawns and shrivelled seasons and there is good reason to be sceptical.

But if the team are successful the fans will rally round. And that is starting to happen.

If Boro keep winning games convincingly, if they keep passing big tests, if they stay at the summit and look like realistic contenders then those people can be won back.

That can start on Saturday. And a 20,000 crowd is realistic.

Boro’s matchday attendances have been gradually creeping up for a year.

In Tony Mowbray’s last home game Boro hit a shocking low of just 13,181 - although to be fair, there was just a tractor full from the far bottom corner.

There were four gates over the magic mark of 20,000 last term, all after Mogga had left.

For the 4-0 win over Doncaster, the dug-out debut for Mark Venus, a televised game branded the a “Spirit of Teesside” game with a ticket offer attracted 21,882.

Then Karanka’s first home game, a 1-0 win over Bolton, drew 23,679, the tradional bumper Boxing Day crowd was 20,689 for a 1-0 win over Burnley and then the semi-derby clash with Leeds in February lured a disappointing 20,474.

This season started with an optimistic August high of 18, 371 then there were 17,820 for the visit of Sheffield Wednesday in the next home game.

But those two teams brought healthy travelling contingents (Brum just over 1,000 and the Owls just under 2,000) to disguise the underlaying figure stubbornly lurking around the hardcore of about 16,000.

Morale-sapping home defeats to Sheffield Wednesday and Reading - and low away fan turnouts from Brentford and Blackpool and Fulham - pegged gates back for a few games.

But since the Karanka machine has started to hit top gear, gates are on the up, nudging in the right direction by several hundred a game.

Can we top 20,000 for Bournemouth? Of course.

Strip away the visiting section and there were 17,000 Boro fans for the Watford game.

And there were 16,000 for Norwich. That’s not bad for a midweek when many of the expats from the Diasboro don’t travel and the dreaded phrase “it’s a school night” dents the Family Zone turn-out.

For a top two clash and with the club at an historic high, the Cherries should bring more than the 340 last year. Certainly over 500, maybe higher.

So Boro need to attract an extra 2,500 supporters to break the barrier.

Can they? It will be a very depressing sign if not.

The early signs are good - there were queues at the ticket office yesterday morning and business was brisk throughout the rest of the day.

It is starting to become “an event”. It could be a cracking game.

It could be an historic one too, the day we grabbed control of the promotion race.

It is time to stand up and be counted, to rally around the team. Get yourself there.